a character on the filmed-in-Wilmington drama “Dawson’s Creek.” In the seven years since “Dawson’s” wrapped, Smith has had regular gigs on “Charmed,” “E-Ring” and “Eli Stone.” But Smith says his new CW drama “Life Unexpected” comes closest to recapturing the magic of the “Creek.”

Q : What was your first impression of Wilmington when you arrived for “Dawson’s Creek?”

A: It was an adjustment for me just cause I’ve been living in New York and L.A. and all these fast-paced cities. My first impression of Wilmington was that everything moved really slowly. But I

grew to love that very quickly. In fact, I miss Wilmington quite a bit. I’ve been meaning to get out there and take a little vacation, maybe go down to Wrightsville and chill out on the water for a week.

Q: Where did you stay when you were here?

A: I was all over the place, I was downtown first and then I was off of Eastwood Road. Then I was down at Wrighstville for the last three years. I’ve always been a beach guy.

Q: You guys went through a couple of rough hurricanes when you were here — Bonnie in 1998 and Floyd in 1999.

A: The first one, we actually stayed. Shut us down for five days. I was staying at (what) is now the Wilmingtonian. Yeah we basically partied for five days. It was awesome; the eye of the hurricane came directly over downtown. When it did, we went outside, checked everything out… everything was destroyed. And then the back side of the hurricane was worse than the front. It was pretty cool to experience. And then the second one was the one were everything flooded, and there were cows floating around and whatnot. They flew us out of there for that one because it was supposed to be pretty bad.

It was my first hurricane.

Q: Any favorite restaurants or local hangouts?

A: I spent a lot of time at Dockside. Just pull up on the jet ski or pull up on the boat and start drinking… getting crab legs. The whole cast and crew was pretty big on on the weekends going out to Masonboro Island. That was such a great time.

Q: If you could get a care package from Wilmington, what would you want in it?

A: I’ll tell you what, I’ll take a bushel of crab legs on dry ice from Dockside.

Q: Let’s talk “Life Unexpected.” You said you got a vibe with this show similar to the one you got with “Dawson’s Creek.”

A: It starts with the content of the show, I do, yeah. I mean, you know I’ve been doing this a long time and sometimes you just don’t get a very good vibe, you just kind of know the show’s not gonna gel, the cast isn’t going to gel, the story’s just not there or whatever. But with “Life Unexpected,” as (with) “Dawson’s…” I get a very good feeling that people are really gonna like this show. It’s got heart. Theres not a lot of shows out there on television right now that really have something important to say, something of value, (that) teach people something about family and hope. Ours does. And I think that’s a really special quality in a program.

Q: It’s rare for TV show to feature a love triangle where both guys involved are guys you want to root for.

A: Yeah. Myself and Kris and Shiri talked about it prior to shooting (the pilot). That’s what we wanted to accomplish. We didn’t want anybody to be somebody that the audience wanted out of the triangle. We wanted everybody to root for everyone equally. Its more interesting I think. The three characters are so different that there’s a ton of opportunity to play a lot of drama there, as well as a lot of humor.

Q: You came to this show after playing in a slightly different love triangle on “Eli Stone.”

A:Yeah, I mean it’s a little bit of a different story. My “Eli Stone” guy was a bit of a jerk. A big jerk in the beginning, that’s what they wanted, and then all the sudden they wanted to make him Mr. Nice Guy because people wanted to see me with (Maggie), so I just kinda played what they asked me to play there. But you know Ryan on “Life Unexpected,” he’s a good guy. He’s definitely the most mature or most responsible out of the three. I find him different.

Q: So when is Ryan going to snap?

A: We’re gonna give him his set of problems. I mean, he’s always gonna be a nice guy, but how much can you deal with? The fiancé is a little on the crazy side, and it’s kind of a package deal, not only do I get her, but I get a 16-year-old kid and I get her high school hookup. So it’s a lot to deal with, and I’m sure Ryan’s gonna have some problems down the road, you know juggling all those balls in the air at one time.

Q: Right form the pilot, you’ve had great morning show banter and chemistry with Shiri. Was that something you two practiced?

A: You know what? We left it alone. We didn’t really rehearse that stuff simply because Shiri and I have a natural banter outside of the characters. It just kinda seems to work on air as well. We went with it. We did a lot of improv in there and knocked all the radio stuff out in one day and just had a lot of fun with it.

Q: Back to “Dawson’s Creek.” That show had a famously passionate fan base, but thos efans didn’t have all the Intenet tools today’s fans have. What is like dealing with the “Dawson’s” fans?

A: Well we didn’t have Twitter. But we certainly had the Internet. “Dawson’s Creek” fans were loyal. “Crazy Creekers” is what we called them. A lot of the hardcore fans were actually extras on the set. Josh (Jackson) and I would be having a conversation at lunch, and the next thing you know, half that conversation would be on the Internet 10 minitess later. We had to kinda figure out who was doing what and make sure it didn’t happen anymore. We had to be careful on set even. Now, I think it’s even worse. You know, somebody takes a picture of you doing something you may not want people to know, but they take it on their phone, and five minutes later it’s on the Internet. So you’ve really got to be careful.

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About This Blog

Community Engagement Editor Jeff Hidek takes his TV way too seriously. There’s something about the common thread of television that brings us together like little else. Jeff’s a member of the Television Critics Association, but he’s no TV snob. He enjoys watching “NCIS” even more than “Mad Men” sometimes. He’s got way too many shows on his DVR list each week, including “Big Bang Theory,” “Parks & Recreation,” “Castle,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Middle,” “Burn Notice,” “The Closer,” “House,” “Chuck,” “The Big C” and “Warehouse 13.” To contact Jeff, e-mail him at jeff.hidek@starnewsonline.com or follow him on Twitter at @JeffHidek.